In the middle of the fall quarter of my senior year at Bowling Green State University, I began to experience symptoms of a mental illness. With the help of family and friends, I left school to enter a psychiatric hospital and was discharged weeks later. Ultimately I returned to college and graduated three years later.

After graduating from Bowling Green, I held three successive sales positions in three years. Despite moderate success in those jobs, I was let go, sometimes due to my illness.

I decided to enter the Masters program at Case Western Reserve. Deadlines and final exams became a burden too great for my mind to bear. Consequently I was hospitalized once a year for three straight years while attending school. Fortunately, with an understanding faculty and administrative staff at Case Western, I graduated in 1988.

Weeks after graduating from Case, the roof caved in. The next seven years were spent in day treatment centers where methods like group therapy were implemented to help me gain control over the symptoms of the illness.

In 1995 I was introduced to Magnolia Clubhouse on University Circle. I had never experienced a rehabilitative setting like this in my life. Clubhouse members and staff worked side-by-side in a collaborative environment to accomplish the tasks of the day. Emphasis was placed on increasing confidence by completing tasks independently. Freedom to fail as well as succeed was the norm.

I remained at Magnolia Clubhouse for the next six years. I got involved with a part of Clubhouse called Transitional Employment. In this program members worked in part-time temporary work positions in the community where confidence earned in the clubhouse could be applied in work settings.

I have held three of those Transitional Employment positions. Since completing my last T.E. I have held two work positions outside of Magnolia Clubhouse that I found, interviewed for and managed outside the Clubhouse.

Looking back, it's easy for me to see how Magnolia Clubhouse contributed to my recovery from this illness. For people with a mental illness, reality comes from the ideas and thoughts that you cannot readily control, not from what is in front of you or from what the professionals tell you. Magnolia Clubhouse helped me to gain perspective on myself and my illness.

Mental illness also has a way of making it impossible to like yourself and develop self-esteem. Magnolia Clubhouse has enabled me through completing tasks, socializing with members and working on Transitional Employment positions to improve the way I see myself and improve my self-image.

Lastly, Magnolia Clubhouse has provided me with a sense of independence that I feel would have been impossible to find in other psychiatric rehabilitative settings.

The best way to summarize is that I now have options that I have not had in almost 15 years. My future goal is to return to retail sales, to a position that offers challenge professionally.

And I know that after I achieve my goal, my days at Magnolia Clubhouse will not be long forgotten.

- Chris, Clubhouse Member

It was 1987 when I first came to clubhouse. I didn’t feel ready to work but wanted to get out of the house. It took me a while to get comfortable around people. In 1991 I got my first of what would be eight TEs. The final three especially helped prepare me for my current independent employment. I completed my first full year at Wild Oats Market and received the Employee of the Month award.

I’ve gotten much support and encouragement from members and staff at Magnolia Clubhouse. At each placement, staff learned the job first and then trained me. No one pressured me to remain on a TE when I had difficulties but listened to my issues and I was encouraged to continue. We discussed what might improve my situation. The support I got was very important and knowing I wasn’t alone made a huge difference on me completing my TEs. Even after the training period was finished, I welcomed the continued visits of staff and members interested in that placement.

We have Employment Dinners once a month to recognize and support employed members and those interested in working. It’s a big step for many members to give work a chance and staff realizes that. Just as important as completing a job is trying. No one is a failure.

Even with my independent job I still receive support from the clubhouse, which is why my continued membership is especially important to me. Working inside or outside the clubhouse, every member makes an important contribution to Our Clubhouse.

- Fletcher, Clubhouse Member

When I first came to clubhouse, I was very scared because I had never heard of a place like it. I wasn’t sure how I would do or what I would do. I started out in the Hospitality Unit. As I worked on this unit, I became more confident in my work and in the working of the clubhouse. I moved on to the Clerical Unit two years later. As time went on, I became more active in the clubhouse and its activities, including Social Recreation.

The more I threw myself into the Clubhouse, the less afraid of it I became. I also became more confident in other areas of my life, including school. I attended a community college for several years until I got two associates degrees; Associate of Arts and Associate of Science. I took a TE job doing clerical work. This was my first job and it was a great success. As I look back on the years I’ve been a member of Magnolia Clubhouse, I realize that my experiences here have done me a lot of good, especially as I remember how I was when I first began my membership here.

- Jamey, Clubhouse Member